Yes, starting from Python 3.8 you can control this behavior. The original discussion starts from pep 304 in 2003. While this original PEP was withdrawn, a variant of this feature was eventually implemented for Python 3.8 in https://bugs.python.org/issue33499 In the result, you can control using PYTHONPYCACHEPREFIX=path, -X pycache_prefix=path and sys.pycache_prefix.
.pyc files contain some metadata and a marshaled code object; to load the code object and disassemble that use: import dis, marshal, sys header_sizes = [ # (size, first version this applies to) # pyc files were introduced in 0.9.2 way, way back in June 1991. (8, (0, 9, 2)), # 2 bytes magic number, … Read more
For example, would a file generated with Python 3.1.5 be compatible with Python 3.2.x? No. Or would a .pyc file generated with Python 2.7.3 be compatible with a Python 3.x release? Doubly no. I’m considering distributing just the .pyc files without their corresponding .py sources. Python bytecode is high-level and trivially decompilable.
The .pyc files are created (and possibly overwritten) only when that python file is imported by some other script. If the import is called, Python checks to see if the .pyc file’s internal timestamp is not older than the corresponding .py file. If it is, it loads the .pyc; if it isn’t or if the … Read more
.py: This is normally the input source code that you’ve written. .pyc: This is the compiled bytecode. If you import a module, python will build a *.pyc file that contains the bytecode to make importing it again later easier (and faster). .pyo: This was a file format used before Python 3.5 for *.pyc files that … Read more
Uncompyle6 works for Python 3.x and 2.7 – recommended option as it’s most recent tool, aiming to unify earlier forks and focusing on automated unit testing. The GitHub page has more details. If you use Python 3.7+, you could also try decompyle3, a fork of Uncompyle6 focusing on 3.7 and higher. Do raise GitHub issues … Read more
I’ve been given to understand that Python is an interpreted language… This popular meme is incorrect, or, rather, constructed upon a misunderstanding of (natural) language levels: a similar mistake would be to say “the Bible is a hardcover book”. Let me explain that simile… “The Bible” is “a book” in the sense of being a … Read more